The Move
Our move-in date was scheduled for January 7th, but we began packing on December 29th. Although we’d moved twice before, we had never moved like this. When we moved in and out of the townhouse in Davidson we could take our time; We didn’t have to pack too carefully because our things were hand delivered by ourselves just down the street. This time around, we were packing our things for a four and a half hour ride in a sixteen foot box truck and we were trusting separate pairs of helpers to load and unload the truck. We certainly needed to start early.
Fortunately, I had the week after New Year’s Day off, because I had resigned from Team Penske effective December 28th. Each day was a mix of packing, organizing, picking up more supplies, and generally winding down our commitments in North Carolina. To be fair, I also played a good bit of one of my favorite computer games, Sid Meier’s Civilization 5, because I felt like I deserved a little break, but nonetheless my FitBit will tell you that I worked hard! I averaged over 14,000 steps/day and definitely earned the sleep I got each night.
On January 6th the moving crew arrived at 8:50am. They were contracted to help for two hours and they took every bit of it to get the truck loaded with my help the entire time. It took another hour to make sure we had all the straggling bits packed into the car and to finish cleaning the apartment, and then we hit the road. I drove the truck and Laura drove “Elektra” our Rav4 with Ruby in the back seat. It took about 4.5 hours to reach our hotel in Charlottesville, and the drive was comfortable and easy. After a long day of work and driving we were happy to fall asleep early in a comfortable bed that we didn’t have to put together.
We had been scheduled to move in at 9:30a, but that got bumped to 4:30p because the carpet installation and general cleaning couldn’t be completed in time. This turned out to be a blessing in disguise. We extended our stay at the hotel and enjoyed the day instead. We walked the Mall before Laura’s mom arrived and then spent the afternoon relaxing and mentally preparing for the move.
The unloading crew was amazing. we were all moved in within an hour and a half, which turned out to be just enough time to return the rental truck and to get back to the hotel to watch Clemson play in the college football national championship game against Alabama. Our successful move was punctuated by an historic Clemson win, and we went to bed happy and excited to begin the process of unpacking.